Thy gentle flows of guiltless joys Directrefs of the brave and juft, O guide us thro' Life's darkfome way I Nor fhall thine ardours ceafe to glow, JOHNSON. ODE TO MORNING. HAIL, rofeate Morn! returning light! And as the quits the dappled skies, O'er tufted meads gay Flora trips, Her head with rofe-bads crown'd: Mild Zephyr haftes to snatch a kiss; The dew-drops, daughters of the man, And all the broider'd vales; Their voice to thee the linnets raife, While Nature, now in lively vest Of gloffy green, has gaily drefs'd Each tributary plain; While blooming flowers, and bloffom'd trees, Soft waving with the vernal breeze, Exult beneath thy reign; Shall I, with drowfy poppies crown'd, Ah, no! thro' yon embowering grove, And own thy chearful fway! For fhort-liv'd are thy pleasing powers & And we no more shall trace Thy dimpled cheek and brow ferene; So in life's youthful bloomy prime But by fome unexpected blow, And mourn them when too late. PENNINGTONY THE ATHEIST AND THE ACORN. METHINKS the world feems oddly made And every thing amifs, A dull complaining Atheift faid, As ftretched he lay beneath the fhade, 4 And inftanced in this. "Behold," quoth he, that mighty thing, "A pumpkin large and round, "Is held but by a little ftring, "Which upwards cannot make it spring, "Nor bear it from the ground. While on this Oak an acorn small, "So difproportion'd grows, "That whofoe er furveys this all"This univerfal, casual ball, "Its ill contrivance knows. "My better judgment would have hung No more the caviller could say, Fell down upon his eye. The wounded part with tears ran o'er, As punish'd for the fin: "Fool! had that bough a pumpkin bore, 66 Thy whimfies would have work'd no more, "Nor skull have kept them in.". ANON. CHILDHOOD, happiest stage of life! Time, when all that meets the view, Then to tofs the circling ball, SCOTT. |